Waiting to hear it again
by Mezzosopranogirl
Summary: "Te amo" Those were the last words Jaime Reyes, Blue Beetle said to her before he sacrificed himself to destroy the mother-ship. Now, six months later, Cassie is losing hope he's still alive. There's only one more place he could be. Post-invasion. Mild AU, WonderBeetle.
1. Sacrifice and Te amo

They were on the alien mother-ship, the last one standing. All the leaguers were injured, so the Team went in. Cassie didn't know it, but her boyfriend, Jaime (A.K.A Blue Beetle) knew the only way to destroy it would mean sacrificing himself. To end the invasion, Jaime would die. But before he did, he had to get her out.

"Exactly _how_ does the indestructible Wonder Girl get a broken leg?"Jaime asked her as they flew to the waiting bioship, but there was no humor in her boyfriend's voice. He was worried, that was obvious. Cassie shrugged (hiding a wince of pain), and said "Advanced Alien tech and bad luck?"

"Ha ha," they reached the bioship, where Blue Beetle handed her to Nightwing.

"Get out of here. I've got a mother-ship to destroy," he told him. Nightwing gave him a look, which Jaime returned. Then he nodded.

"Good luck," he said. Cassie was about to pass out from the pain.

"Jaime, what are you-"

"Stay safe, Cassie. _Te amo._" Cassie was shocked. _Te amo_ meant I love you. He had never said it before.

"_Te amo demasiado, _Jaime," she said, and he flew off just before she passed out.

* * *

_You harbor thoughts of the Cassie as you fly to your doom? _The scarab asked, something close to incredulity in the electronic voice.

"Yeah. That's what love is. Now let's go out with a bang."

_Agreed. Activating Plasma Cannon__.  
_There was a bright flash of light, and the Blue Beetle was no more.

* * *

When Cassie woke up, what she expected was a white cast on her leg and Jaime sitting next to her, ready to call her an idiot in Spanish but smiling too much for her to take it seriously.

Well, there was a white cast.

But no Jaime. Instead, Diana was there, head on her chest, asleep. She soon woke though.

"How do you feel?" she asked, her voice gentle.

"I'm okay. Where's Jaime?" Usually he was the first to check up on her, even if she was indestructible. A look of pain flashed across her mentor's face.

"Cassie, Jaime didn't make it."

"_What_? He had to. He was going to blow up the mother-ship and come meet us!"

"Did he say that?" Diana was being gentle, but firm.

"No, but he must've meant to. There's no way he'd..." _leave me, _Cassie thought.

"Sacrifice himself? It was the only way Cassie, but even we didn't know till after."

"No, he can't be...he _can't _be." She started to cry, and Diana put an arm around her.

"I'm sorry Cassie."

"Can-can I see him?"

"The explosion vaporized everything. We searched for hours. Nothing." No body? Maybe they were wrong.

_Maybe Jaime's still out there, somewhere._

* * *

The funeral for Blue Beetle was huge, attended by the whole League as they carved his name into the monument for fallen heroes, joining the original Blue Beetle, Aquagirl, and others who gave their life.

Cassie didn't speak. She just cried.

The funeral for Jaime Reyes was small, simple. Like the small white headstone.

_Jaime Reyes_

_Born July 10, 2000-Died August 17, 2017  
_

_Hero, Son, Brother_

* * *

_Evetown Memorial Hospital, the day of the explosion:  
_

"We have a John Doe, late teens, unconscious, blast marks. Going into shock. I need two units O negative, stat! Get him to the operating room now!"

"ugggg" the boy moaned a few hours later, waking up.

"Hey son, can you tell me how old you are?"

"I don't... remember."

"Can you tell me where you are?"

"A hospital?"

"Close enough. What's your name?"

"I don't know." The young Hispanic boy said.

He had amnesia.


	2. Found

"Try to remember, kid. Anything like a name? Any memory at all?" The doctor asked.

A flash of blonde hair, a bright smile, a voice calling him "blue"

"Blue?"

"It'll have to do kid. C'mon, let's get you out of the hospital."

"Where are we going?"

"There's a hospice three miles from here that specializes in long-term memory loss problems. You'll be more comfortable there."

* * *

_Five Months Later:_

Nightwing was worried about Cassie. She still got the job done (sometimes even better than before), but she never really talked to anyone, and usually it was with monosyllabic answers. And, he knew she went to hospitals in the area where it happened, looking for Jaime.

The denial stage of grief wasn't supposed to last _five months. _And he would know.

By his count, she would run out of places, and hope, in about three days.

She was headed for a big crash.

* * *

Cassie was smart. She knew better than to look right where the ship had been. The League had searched that with a fine-tooth comb. And, if he was there when the ship had exploded, he would have been thrown. So she calculated a radius of how far he could have been flung, superimposed it on a map (Bats weren't the only people who could use a computer), and searched all the hospitals, clinics, emergency rooms and vet's (you weren't picky when you needed help) in the area.

Total Possibilities: 384

The first hospital was a dud.

Ditto the next 382. It had taken her _five months _of going to multiple hospitals per day, getting sympathetic or pitying looks from nurses, and her heart breaking again every time she failed.

So, she had almost run out of hope when she reached Evetown Memorial Hospital. It was a little place, just at the edge of the search radius. If Jaime wasn't here, he really was..._no, _she couldn't think like that.

"Can I help you?" the nurse on duty asked.

"Yes, I'm looking for a boy-"

"Can't help you there, hon."

"Not like that. Do you have any John Doe's?"

"Always have a couple, can I get a description?"

"17, Hispanic, black hair, brown eyes, about 5'7. Injuries would be consistent with a blast." She rattled this off like she had said it a thousand times. The nurse had seen people like this after the invasion, desperate to get some closure. So she began to search.

"Hmm...let me see...oh! There was one, about five months ago."

"That sounds like him," Cassie was hiding the wild hope that had just sprung up, "is there a picture?"

There was.

"He doesn't look good in it sweetie," she warned.

"I need to know, show me," Cassie answered. There, bruised and battered, was a picture of Jaime.

"That's Him!" Cassie looked elated. The nurse was happy for her until she saw the notice: amnesia.

"I hate to rain on your parade, dear, but his file says he lost his memory."

Cassie's face fell a little, but she replied "It's better than him being dead. Can I see him?"

"It says here he was transferred to a hospice that specializes in this sort of thing. I'll write down the address."

"Thank you." The girl looked so relieved, the nurse was smiling the rest of the day.

* * *

Every day was the same at the hospice for Blue-or Azul, as they called him after they discovered he was bilingual, get up, get dressed, eat the same boring breakfasts, wander the garden or hang out in the game room until lunch, then after lunch was his daily session with the memory counselor, where he tried for hours to remember any thing. Sometimes he got the flash of yellow hair that came with his name, but everything else stayed blank.

Today though, it was different.

"Azul?" Stacy, one of the nurses asked as he sat in the garden on a bench, "you have a visitor."

Who would be visiting him?

A blonde girl with blue eyes in jeans and a t-shirt walked over at Stacy's beckoning. She took a long look at him, then threw her arms around his neck.

"Oh, Jaime!" she said. Suddenly, a flash of that hair again, and a name_-Cassie._

"Cassie?" She must have known he had lost his memory, because she looked surprised.

"Yeah, Jaime. It's me. How much do you remember?"

"Just your name, and that hair of yours _chica." _Cassie smiled at the nickname.

The nurse broke in "So, now we know your name, Jaime, how about a last name too?"

"Reyes," Cassie told her, "and is there some way we can discharge him? It's time he went home."

"We'll need to contact his parents first."

"I think it might be better if I called someone to tell them. This isn't something you want to hear over the phone." Stacy nodded, then left to update his record.

"Who are you going to call?"

"A friend. You'll remember him soon. I have to go off the grounds for this, but I'll be back soon. Stay safe, Blue. _Te extrañé(_I missed you)" She walked off. Blue-no, Jaime, smiled at the familiar sound of her calling him that.

"_Yo también te extrañé_(I missed you, too)"

* * *

It just so happened that the "friend" she was calling was Nightwing. If anyone would know what to do, he would.

Unfortunately, he was in a meeting. With the entire Justice League. And Tim had chosen that week to prank him by changing his ringtone to "Kryptonite". Superman and Batman were Not Amused. (The rest of the League however, were very amused)

So, when his phone went off, he got a lot of super-glares.

"Uhhh...oops?" the glares intensified.

"Put it on speaker," Batman said. So he did.

"Hello?"

"Nightwing! It's Cassie. I-found-Jaime-but-he-lost-his-memory-which-is-why-he-never-contacted-us-but-he's-alive!" She said the last part so fast no one understood it, well Barry would have, but the Flash was asleep.

"Cassie? Slow down and repeat." They heard a shaky breath.

"I found Jaime. He's alive."

Everyone (except Batman, who remained stoic) gasped.

"What?" About half the League asked, and Nightwing added, "uh, Cass? You're on speaker with the League."

"Oh. Uh, hi? Yeah, I found him. He's been at a hospice for amnesiacs for the past five months."

"Explain." Batman said.

"I figured that with no body, he might still be alive, so I calculated the area he could have landed and checked all the places he could go for help. I found him."

Doing the math in his head quickly, the now-awake Flash said, "But that's like 300 places!"

"Three-eighty-four," Cassie corrected him. Several of the members were looking at the phone in shock.

"We'll send someone to tell his parents. You stay with him. If he's lost his memory, he may not know that he has superpowers." Batman ordered.

"Yes, sir. Wonder Girl out" She hung up. The League was silent for a few minutes after Batman sent Nightwing to tell Jaime's parents. Then Flash broke it.

"She spent _five months_ looking for a guy we declared dead? And found him?"

"Damn. That girl loves him." Rocket said. There were nods all around.

* * *

"So, uh...when will my parents get here?" Jaime asked.

"Depends. Someone will tell them, and depending on how long it takes them to be convinced, anywhere from a few hours to a couple days." He really liked how honest Cassie was. She also seemed really happy, like a weight had been lifted off her. He guessed his disappearance had taken a toll on her.

"So, how did I end up in that hospital?"

"Jaime-it's best that waits until we get you home. Have someone else explain. If I tell it, I'll start crying. So, how have you been?"

"Every day is the same, really. Until today. I should probably go to my memory therapist. Wanna come with?"

"Sure." They walked out of the gardens and into the office of Dr. Preston.

"Hello, Azul, who's this?" she asked.

"Cassie, she's a friend. And my name is Jaime."

"Your family has been located?"

"They'll be on their way soon." Cassie said.

"We'll, let's see if we can help you remember them before then. Cassie, do you have any pictures of his family?"

"Yeah, one sec." She pulled out her phone and scrolled through. She handed the phone to Jaime. On the screen were four people. One was him, another was a little girl who he assumed was his sister- _Rosa_ he remembered. A slightly taller man who looked a lot like Jaime stood next to him, his father, and a pretty faced lady who was his mother.

"I remember" he almost whispered.

"That's good, Jaime. It means that your brain is ready to remember, we just have to get you in familiar places."

After the therapy session, he had remembered all their names, and random personality traits like which ice cream they liked best or the color of ribbon Rosa liked in her braid.

* * *

"My baby boy is alive? You're sure? Because you told us he died five months ago!" Mrs. Reyes was not happy.

"We're sure. He recognized the Team member who found him, apparently until then he had no memories at all."

"Who found him?" Mr. Reyes asked.

"Cassie" Understanding and belief flooded their faces. Rosa started crying happy tears.

"If Cassie, says it's him, it's him," Mrs. Reyes said.

Nightwing had permission to give them access to Zeta tubes to get them there quickly.

"He may not remember you..." He warned.

"He will, if not now, soon."


	3. The Cave

Jaime was glad he remembered almost everything about his parents. That way he wasn't blindsided by his mother's crushing hug.

Or the cry of "_Mijo _you've grown!"

_"Hola, mama. Hola papa."_

"You scared us so much!" His father's voice would have been scolding if not for the big smile on his face.

Rosa demanded he pick her up, then proceed to inspect his face. His parents had moved over to Cassie, and from what he could hear, thanking her profusely. Something felt so _natural _about seeing her with his parents, like he did it often.

Then Rosa demanded he get in the car so she could have her brother back.

And he laughed. His parents signed the discharge papers while he, Cassie and Rosa waited in a rental car. Rosa kept hugging him, and he caught Cassie with a strange expression on her face a few times, but it quickly changes to just her usual peppy smile when she saw him looking. Finally, his parents came out, smiling widely.

As they drove, he, Cassie and his family chattered about everything. Then they got to a place he didn't quite get in the conversation.

"Cassie, have you told Jaime yet?" his mother asked.

"Told him what?" Cassie looked slightly nervous, why, he had no idea.

"About the Team, dear," his mother replied.

"Oh. I thought we'd work up to that. But his memory therapist did say that he should remember when he's in familiar places,"

Both his parents nodded.

"Well then," his father said, "we should make a left and head to the Cave."

"What are you guys talking about?" he asked.

"You'll see _mijo,_ you'll see."

Well, that made everything clear didn't it?

Cassie got on the phone again, saying things like "we're bringing him to the Cave" or "they suggested it, actually". When she hung up, there was a smile on her face and she nodded to his parents, who drove up to what looked like a mountain.

_Mount Justice, _another memory.

His parents left them in front of Mount Justice, planning to meet them in town (_Happy Harbor) _later.

Just when he thought they were playing a joke on him, a hidden door opened on the mountain. A mechanical voice called out

"_Recognized Wonder Girl B21"_

_"Recognized Blue Beetle B22"  
_

Blue Beetle? Wonder Girl was Cassie? What the heck was going on?

Meanwhile, all the team members presently at the Cave were standing in the main hall of the cave, where Nightwing had called them for no apparent reason, when they heard the announcement. Everyone (except Rocket, Zatanna and Nightwing) either gasped or their eyes widened comically. They all looked at their fearless leader, who smiled and nodded. Everyone ran/flew off.

Jaime's wild thoughts were interrupted by a bunch of people in brightly colored costumes ambushed him. As each came, he remembered them. There was a guy in a black shirt with the Superman shield (_Superboy/Conner), _a girl in a yellow and black outfit (_Bumblebee/Karen),_ a green kid in white and red (_Beastboy/Gar), _a girl who looked like a female Batman (_Batgirl), _a kid in red and black with a cape (_Robin), _a guy with gills in a red and blue outfit (_Aqualad/Kaldur), _a dude in a red and yellow bodysuit (_Kid Flash/Wally),_ a guy in casual clothes (_Civvies)_ who looked dangerous even without the costume (_Mal)_,a blonde girl in green with a bow (_Artemis), _a black-haired girl in a magician's outfit (_Zatanna), _a girl in brown and blue with a strange belt (_Rocket/Raquel), _and a guy in a black bodysuit with a blue symbol on his chest (_Nightwing). _

All the girls except Cassie, who had taken a precautionary step away, tackled him in a hug. There were also several cries of "You're alive!"

When the girls had gotten off him, he took a moment to regain his bearings, then looked around. This place brought back a lot of memories alright, and they were coming back fast, a little too fast.

"Shouldn't there be two more of you?" he asked, remembering two more green people.

"Lagoon Boy quit and Miss Martian is undergoing intensive psychic training on Mars. She and Martian Manhunter won't be back until next week."

"Oh." Jaime went back to looking around.

In the background, he heard Cassie explaining that he lost his memory, but it would come back in familiar places.

"What are we waiting for then?" Gar asked, "Time for the tour!"

He grabbed Jaime and started dragging him off to the rest of the Cave. Nightwing gave a look to Conner, who nodded, and followed them. Probably to make sure they didn't blow anything up. The rest of the team was still in shock. After about a minute, Karen asked,

"How did you find him?"

So Cassie explained the math she'd done.

"So, you went to almost four hundred hospitals to find him?" Robin asked.

"Yeah."

"How much does he remember about, you know, you and him?" Zatanna asked.

"Nothing."

"Oh, Cassie..."

"It's okay. At least he's alive right? Anyway, I gotta go call my mom." and with that, Cassie walked off.

"He better remember her quick." All the girls said simultaneously.

"When M'Gann gets back, she'll bring back any memories he hasn't already regained. No problem," Nightwing assured them.

* * *

_Back at the hospice_

"So how long will it take him to remember that the girl is his girlfriend?" Stacy asked another nurse, her best friend Julia, as they drove off.

"It shouldn't take long. They obviously had something special if she searched for him all this time."

"Ever think I'll get a love story like that?"

"Nah. They earned it. I don't know how, but they earned it."


	4. Normalicy

The tour took a while, as they stopped in every room as he memories came rushing back. Most of it was trivial stuff, reading in the library, movie nights in the living room, that sort of thing.

Then they got to the training room. That's when he remembered-he was a _superhero_. It hit him like a ton of bricks. He suddenly felt dizzy as missions, training and just _being_ a superhero hit him. He swayed a little, but Conner caught him.

"I'm...a superhero?"

"Yeah. One of the best," he tells him.

"What happened to me? Cassie wouldn't say."

"I'll explain that," Nightwing's voice came out of nowhere, as did he a few seconds later. He walked over to the holocomputer and brought up an image of a large ship, definitely alien.

"You know the alien invasion?" he starts.

"The one five months ago? Yeah."

"This was the mother-ship. It was the last one standing. We were sent in do destroy it," as he talks, Jaime remembers every detail.

"I knew the only way to destroy it would be to sacrifice myself," he says in a low voice. Nightwing nods in conformation.

"After it exploded, we searched for hours in the wreckage, what little there was. The blast vaporized almost everything, which is why we thought you were dead, even with no body. I'm sorry we gave up Jaime. Cassie was the only one who didn't."

"I understand."

The rest of the Team comes in, and Mal says, "We should head to the grotto." Everyone nods, smiling. They lead him down a familiar path to an underground room, with a few holograms of heroes. He sees that the one of Artemis is gone, of course, replaced by one of him.

Everyone moves to stand in front of it, and a smiling Robin says, "We'll, don't need this anymore, do ya Blue?" and he hits a button. The hologram fades, and there's some cheering, not to mention more hugging from the girls.

Then he realizes something.

"Guys, the scarab hasn't talked to me. At _all_." Nightwing uses his glove computer to scan it.

"That's odd. It's almost completely offline, but it's repairing itself. Probably won't be able to talk to you or activate the armor for another few weeks."

They do some more scans, and they confirm that the scarab is self-repairing.

Only a few weeks more of peace before Jimminy Cricket with a bad attitude comes back. _Joy._

* * *

Cassie drops him off at the place he's supposed to meet his parents, then tells him she has to go home, her mom's waiting.

His parents don't speak much on the way home, but they keep glancing at him, like they're trying to make sure he's really there. His mom makes his favorite dinner, while his father calls the cemetery to remove his gravestone. Wow, that might just be the weirdest thing he's ever thought. They talk about getting him back to school and throwing a "He's alive!" party (another odd thought).

But as he sits there with his family, he starts to feel something he hasn't in a long time; _normal._


	5. Te amo demasiado (epilogue)

A few days later, and Jaime had almost all his memories back. But he couldn't help feeling like there was something _big_ he was missing. Like, life-altering. And it had something to do with Cassie.

He couldn't place it. When he saw her, he got vague flashes of color, random snatches of conversation, the impression of a head on his shoulder. But nothing concrete.

It didn't help that Cassie was avoiding him. Every time she saw him, she got this pained look in his eyes and walked away. It confused him to no end.

So when M'Gann got back and quit fussing over him and his "aliveness", the first thing he did was ask her to fix the rest of his memories.

"Of course, I'm sorry, I was just surprised I completely forgot you might have memory loss. Sit down," she told him, so he did. Her eyes began to glow.

Suddenly, everything came back. _Cassie _came back.

Their first kiss.

Movie nights with her head on his shoulder and his arm around her.

Their first date, a walk on the beach that somehow turned into kicking some random mugger's butt.

When he had told her about the scarab being sentient, and she hadn't freaked out.

Meeting each others parents.

Being dragged to school dances and pretending to mind.

The last thing he said to her before he ran off to kill himself.

He jerked upright as soon as M'Gann finished, he barely thanked her before running off to find Cassie.

* * *

Cassie was taking out her problems on one of the two indestructible punching bags. Cassie paused when Jaime came rushing into the room, a undefinable expression on his face. Then he spoke.

"I remember," and she broke down in his arms.

"Shh, Cass, it's okay..._lo siento,_ I'm so sorry..." she clutched him tight, relieved sobs shaking her body. She'd been holding it all in, the pain of his "death" and the feelings of rejection from his lack of memory of her. He spoke again after she stopped.

"_Te amo,"_ she looked up at him.

"You don't know how long I've been waiting to hear that again. I love you, too."

I don't have to tell you they kissed after that.

Later, as they snuggled up on the couch, Robin asked Nightwing, "So, are we posting the footage of that all over the Watchtower, or what?" Nightwing's grin was as bright as the sun as he said, "Now, you're thinking like a Robin. You wanna hack it or shall I?"

So, the next day, the cute little scene was all over the Watchtower. You couldn't turn on a terminal without watching it first.

Not that Jaime and Cassie cared.


End file.
